New blog post from farmer Josh Sheppard: Waterfowl on Edge

Late December and through the month of January are typically the peak times when migratory ducks and geese utilize my rice fields and others in the Sacramento Valley as a food source and a place of rest. The severe storm patterns the north state has been experiencing over the past several weeks seem to have created some anxiety among these creatures because they have become quite restless lately.


Usually, when a large grind of ducks and geese flock onto one of my winter flooded rice fields I can count on them to utilize the site for three to five days until they feed out much of the available waste grain the field has to offer and move on to a new location.

Lately, groups of waterfowl have been only spending a day or two in a particular field before moving to another location.

These birds play a key role in a residue management program for growers like myself who return our rice stubble back into the soil every year after harvest is complete. The chewing and moving around of the birds as they search for the rice left behind really helps condition the rice straw to a state that becomes easy to handle next spring when I begin to prepare to plant the new crop.

My hope is that I can get some large numbers of waterfowl return to the fields again during January and February while I will be maintaining the winter flood on these sites so that I get a little more help with the straw decomposition process. However the flight and feeding patterns of the migratory birds may or may not work out for me is yet to be determined, but just knowing that the availability of my working rice fields and others in the Sacramento Valley during the winter months is responsible for over 50 percent of the ducks and geese that exist in the pacific flyway makes me a proud member of the California rice industry.

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Josh Sheppard is proud to be part of the fourth generation of his family that have been farming rice in Butte County for many generations. After receiving degrees in Agribusiness and Water Science from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in 1997 he returned to the 3,000 acre family rice operation with his parents, a brother, and a sister. Josh and his wife, Kathryn, have two children.

When he’s not on the farm, he enjoys time as a volunteer for the California Waterfowl Association and his children's youth basketball programs.